The Two-Way

3:27 pm

Tue February 12, 2013

Rosa Parks Statue, Capitol's First Of African-American Woman, To Be Dedicated

Rosa Parks in June 1999, when she was presented with a Congressional Gold Medal.

William Philpott Reuters /Landov

The late civil rights icon Rosa Parks, who broke racial barriers in 1955 when she would not move to the back of a segregated bus in Montgomery, Ala., will be posthumously part of another barrier-breaking moment on Feb. 27.

The office of House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, announced Tuesday that a statue of Parks will be dedicated that day in the National Statuary Hall of the U.S. Capitol.

According to Boehner's office, "this will be the first statue of an African-American woman to be placed in the Capitol as part of the National Statuary Hall Collection."

President George W. Bush signed legislation in 2005 that directed Congress to add a statue of Parks to the Capitol's collection.